It can be desirable to determine a characteristic of an insulation material such as, for example, a thermal and/or sound insulation material for use in a residential and/or commercial building. For example, to determine whether an insulation material is suitable for use in a specific application, it can be desirable to determine the density of such material.
A thermal and/or sound insulation product can be formed by blowing insulation material such as fiberglass and an adhesive onto a surface, and curing the blown-in materials. This method can be used in the formation of, for example, insulation product between wall studs, ceiling joists, floor joists or combinations thereof. Installing such “blown-in” insulation product can be more convenient and/or cost-effective in comparison with installing conventional pre-formed insulation material. Methods and systems for forming such blown-in insulation product are discussed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,712,347, 5,287,674 and 5,641,368.
Characteristics of such “blown-in” insulation product such as the density thereof can be altered by varying parameters of the blowing process. For example, the density of the cured product can be affected by the ratio of the amount of fiberglass used to the amount of adhesive used, the particular equipment used to apply the blown-in material, and/or the manner in which the materials are applied. Thus, it can be desirable to determine whether such blown-in product meets certain density specifications.
Generally, various known methods exist for measuring the density of an insulation material. Some known methods require the removal of a sample of the insulation material from its installed, preferred location and/or the destruction of such sample in order to determine the density thereof. However, the removal and/or destruction of a sample in order to measure the density of an insulation material can be inconvenient, inefficient and/or time consuming.
In view of the above, it is apparent that it can be desirable to enable measurement of the density of an insulation material by non-destructive means, and/or without the need for removing such insulation material from its preferred, installed location.